Best Buy CFO to Step Down

Best Buy Co.BBY0.53% said Chief Financial Officer Jim Muehlbauer is leaving the company in the latest executive change at the consumer-electronics chain.

Mr. Muehlbauer, who joined the company in 2002, will stay with Best Buy through the end of the 2013 fiscal year. The company said it has launched a search for a successor.

The departure comes as the big-box retailer pushes forward with its own plans for a turnaround. In August, the company hired Hubert Joly, a former top executive at hospitality chain Carlson Cos. with no retail experience, as its new chief executive.

The world's largest electronics chain had suspended its earnings guidance following a 91% quarterly profit decline in August. The company's business eroded by almost every measure in the second-quarter as rising sales of smartphones and tablets failed again to make up for declines in once-strong categories such as computers and televisions.

Meanwhile, Best Buy founder Richard Schulze and private-equity companies are examining the company's books in what could possibly lead to a buyout proposal.

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